Chapter 13

Hollow female voices with high pitched tones danced in and out of my awareness. "No one wakes up from a death sleep after seven days," an older woman said.

A younger woman's low voice responded, next to my ear, "Nor have I ever seen sword wounds close and heal before my very eyes like an unseen hand sewing a shirt. You were not here but I swear it is truly what happened the morning after the attack."

A different woman with a raspy voice, said, "We saw the blood, the wounds and the holes in his clothes that night. Calm down, Mercedes."

I let the discussion fade out and I began to focus on lifting my eye lids. Harsh light with no form shifted to outlines of female forms, and then colors added to my sight as I blinked repeatedly. A warm breath brushed my hair. A bare breast landed on my ear, I froze.

The younger woman continued talking, "I was heating his body―you know how Swarta says he gets cold during his sleeping―when I felt a weird tingle on his thigh..."

Grimm interrupted her. "His eyes are blinking!" I was recognizing voices now.

Mercedes' breast pressed my face and then lifted as she tried to get a better look at me. I looked up into her intense eyes, and then enjoyed the full sight of her small but perky chest. A pretty set of teeth smiled down at me as I soaked up the scene. "He is still pretty cold I better snuggle down for a moment while he awakens." She wiggled down under the heavy cover, her breath blowing gently over my shoulder, her arm across my bare stomach.

"Embarrassed much?" I thought.

Grimm laughed as she left the master bedroom, saying, "I will find Lady Derwen and Lady Solon."

Tharin entered the room with a broad smile. "I told them all, Von, you are one tough wizard," he said.

The High Priestess smiled at me from across the room, responding, "Yes, I am a believer now."

I could feel somebody quivering against my skin, it was a tingly feeling. I drifted partially awake to hear, "Von, come back to us." Someone shared a nice warm kiss upon my lips. My eyes slowly focused to see that Derwen was before me with tears in her eyes. Our eyes met and she leaned into me sobbing, her tears wet my face. I let her emotions settle a few moments then kissed her firmly.

"And who do I have warming me?" I said, cheerfully and with energy.

The cover burst away to reveal my naked body and Swarta, a smile spreading over Swarta's sad face. I stroked her hair gently and said to Derwen, "I feel well rested but very thirsty and hungry." Swarta tweaked my nipple, leaned back out of my field of vision and hefted my water reservoir onto my stomach.

Derwen said, "We found you would suck on your water tube sometimes when restless so whoever was staying with you in bed would nurse you."

I washed my dry mouth with Juniper water enjoying the taste. Swarta's eyes brighter now, said, "You are a brave fool to attack 10 stout men alone with just a knife. When I tell Palus she is going to kill you."

Derwen stomped her feet with her hands on her hips, shook her head and said, "I have guards for a reason. So the Lord and Lady do not have to fight."

Knowing I wasn't going to win I shrugged helplessly, "Wanting to fix things is in my nature. I honestly thought they would be up the back servant stairs before help could arrive. We know they just wanted me."

I really did feel cold and exposed without that blanket―open to Derwen's wrath. The wind went out of Derwen and she crawled into bed with us, dragging the heavy cover over us. I tossed the water pack above my head into the head board. Both women held me quietly; we didn't need to say anything. I felt Derwen's frustration drain out of her in our link, filling her emotion with satisfaction instead. Swarta's naked attentions imparted visible forgiveness and pleasure at my well-being. I had come to care deeply for both of these women, so I kissed their lips one at a time and squeezed their bodies lightly to soothe them. "I promise to act more thoughtfully in the future," I whispered, honestly. It must have been the right thing to say as they both placed passionate kisses on my face.

Swarta stroked my favorite toy, and said, "We don't believe you but we do expect some attention to reassure some lingering anger." My practical Derwen merely asked me what I wanted to eat.

After a brief interlude, we dressed and strolled around the garden in the late afternoon sun whilst the kitchen made me some food.

Sitting down to eat, Tharin and Grimm joined us as they related details about the manhunt for the two escaped assassins. One of them was killed in the nearby fishing village, but in the confusion of the fight the second assassin rode away on a stolen horse. That night a merchant ship wrecked itself on the shore near the fishing village, and the crew was held for interviewing by Hajin until yesterday. As far as anyone knew, the ship was there to pick up a group of traders. However the captain had drowned, and details from the few crew members who survived were sketchy. The ship was an independent out of Conqueror Point, and the captain was the owner.

"Dead end to the money man," I thought. I felt good but a bit stiff from the lack of muscle activity. "I just realized how well-oiled my body feels," I said.

Grimm responded with a slight grin, "The temple priestesses oiled you every day. The new young priestess was particularly attentive."

Derwen had been silent thus far and cut in to carry the conversation in another direction, saying, "The council was officially notified of your ascension as Lord of this manor. The keepers of temple lore received notice of your acceptance of temple duties and I suspect attempts on your life will now end. Killing a sitting county lord, other than in a declared and sanctioned duel, will not be tolerated within the Convey kingdom. Other nobles do not want to be killed in their sleep either, so it is in their interests to extend solidarity to you. We would have civil war otherwise." Grimm nodded solemnly at the statements.

They walked me towards the workshops and my thoughts drifted through all the near death situations I had experienced in my short time on this planet. Derwen interrupted my thinking and picked up our discussion again saying they sent the bodies of the assassins to Port City in a wagon with our county sheriff and a couple of Hajin's men. An attack on a county lord is handled by the sheriff who reports directly to the country's ruling council. Port City has the lead sheriff that deals with the council. Sending the bodies wasn't really necessary, it was more of a statement to create a stir in Port City.

Derwen wanted to impress upon certain parties in the area the epic failure of the plot, and air the scandal of an attack on a sitting lord. The tattoos on the dead identified them as thieves guild enforcers and it was a rare thing for their deeds to brought to light; they didn't have a history of failure. Hajin's men were to tell a tall tale, in public houses, of the failed murder and explain I killed them all with only a dull kitchen knife in my night clothes. The sheriff's real job in the city was to contact the thieves guild to gain an understanding that this will not happen again or else. Whoever sent them to kill me likely did not know I had ascended to an official lord, but the guild might not overlook their embarrassment and take retribution.

Inside the workshops a number of my designs were waiting for my inspection. All the special bolts and javelins were done. Normally, a metal javelin was used as a long-range-attack against enemy troops before they could close on our men. Unfortunately, javelins that missed could be picked up and thrown back at us. My javelin design was wood and metal. The sharp end of the metal was hardened iron, but the portion attached to the wood was soft metal. When the javelin struck something, the iron would bend and make continued use fruitless. If it pierced a shield the bent javelin would make the shield unwieldy and expose the man to other attacks. A shield with a dangling javelin was a useless shield.

A few repeating crossbows were completed too. I had designed a four bolt wooden cartridge to sit on top of the weapon. A number of wooden gears and pulleys created a windlass. While other crossbows I had seen here used a simple lever and hook, this crossbow with a deeper recurved design, was much faster loading and gave more acceleration to the projectile. An improved round iron sight would aid in determining the right shooting angle, giving more accuracy.

I explained to Swarta and Derwen, "These bows will penetrate armor at a greater distance and fire more rapidly. This compound wood design offsets the weight additions of the new features, so they are no heavier than current crossbows. I estimate we will shoot three times more bolts than an opponent's force of the same number, and our shots will have more power and greater accuracy."